Japan to slowly phase out Russian oil imports but keep interests in projects

Kishida did not give a specific timeline for the steps, only saying Japan will reduce or halt imports "in light of the reality."

same line as Europe then, in this morning's article: "the Group of Seven developed democracies pledged Sunday to phasing out or banning the import of Russian oil"....

everyone's hedging their bets, trying to save face.... unsurprisingly. at least Kishida-san is mentioning the elephant in the room, namely "the reality" that everyone's dependent on the oil and whatever, and that they don't actually give a stuff about Ukraine.....

The premier told a virtual meeting of leaders of the Group of Seven nations earlier in the day that Japan will ban Russian oil imports "in principle," as part of additional sanctions levied on Moscow to punish it for its war launched in late February.

The "in principle" is key. "Slowly", "in principle", "phase out", "in light of the reality".

The LDP could not be dragging its' feet more than if it had come out with an outright rejection of other countries' more concrete proposals. Classic prevarication and vagueness.

It is like with anti-discrimination laws and labor rules . Enforcement of pronouncements wll not be frthcomng and at the whim of the LDP/Japan Inc. combine.

Wise.When Russia implodes,Sakhalin and Kamchatka,Kuriles will be back up for grabs.

The LDP ...useless

We are not being held to ransom by the Ukraine like EU. Unless we choose to destroy our economy like them. Business as usual and prosperity.

Calm down, it’s just a ‘special operation’.

Japan to slowly phase out Russian oil imports but keep interests in projects

Smart move. When the “big story of the day” changes, or the warmongering Biden & Co. will be into the election cycle, no one will notice when this statement is never acted upon.

In other words "Japan will still import Russian oil but will feel bad about it."

saying the phaseout of Russian crude will intensify an international race to secure supplies.

If Japan,Inc. were serious about doing something regarding climate change, which they have repeatedly given lip service to, they would look for more ways to reduce reliance on importing and burning huge amounts of fossil fuels, which further enriches Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the US, the UAE, and global gas/oil corporations, each of the previously mentioned could be described as warmongers. At least the USA and Japan, have the ability to vote in politicians willing to find ways to move out of the fossil era, but to do so they would both probably have to find politicians under 60 years of age, instead of continuing to put septuagenarians in power.

Russia accounted for 3.6 percent of Japanese crude oil imports in 2021, coming after Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar. The four Middle Eastern countries provided about 90 percent of oil supply in total.

Yes sure but just continue making business with totalitarian criminal states that cut heads and hands, or cut in peaces their opposants (https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/10/16/middleeast/khashoggi-turkish-investigation-intl/index.html). Or similarly invade a country and have been bombing civilians for years as Saudi Arabia has been doing in Yemen. Hypocrites!

Japan to slowly phase out Russian oil imports but keep interests in projects

It must be a quasi-phase out.

Russian customers are all heading for the door. Those with alternatives available are doing it immediately, while those who have trouble getting hold of alternate supply's quickly will divest over a longer term but one thing is clear, Russian customers for its products are thinning and there is nothing Russia can do to stop it. China, NK and others will remain, but a larger number of clients are leaving.

Why? because of the following nonsense:-

"Putin said the intervention in Ukraine was necessary as the West was creating "threats next to our borders" and "preparing for the invasion of our land."

https://www.9news.com.au/world/russia-marks-wwii-victory-vladimir-putin-claims-west-forced-ukraine-war/85992bb8-3396-4019-8fd2-04e1c884489f

While the world knows this to be blatantly false, nobody was, is or has been planning an invasion of Russia since WWII. Putin's excuses for the destruction of the sovereignty of Ukraine are purely one of conquest and territorial expansion as a means of gaining wealth at the expense of others.

Who plans on invading the worlds strongest nuclear power? Nobody. Not the US, not China, and certainly not Ukraine. You cant invade a nuclear power and win. Nobody will ever try to invade the big three, let alone any nation with a nuclear arsenal at its disposal. Hence NK banking on its nuclear deterrent to keep anyone from a military attempt to regime change.

China is reassessing its desires to control Taiwan and may need to put more effort into peaceful reunification to avoid the economic impact of the world taking out similar sanctions against China as is happening to Russia.

Japan is moving slowly away from reliance on Russia, but it is moving away. When that is completed Japan will be much better off and Russia will have a huge job of getting any customers to return to relying once again on Russia for essential products. This mistrust will remain while Putin remains leader and probably much longer than that.

All Kishida has to do is ante up the feed in rate for solar and voilà !

Reducing the dependency on Russia is something that should have been a priority long before the war, Japan had its options reduced by the current situation but nothing stopped the country from doing this before.

Yes, the eternal thinking of Corporate to 'have one's cake and eat it too'. And everyone's talking about 'oil' and seemingly avoiding the elephant, 'gas'.

Japan will slowly phase out oil imports from Russia while maintaining its interests in oil and gas projects in the Russian Far East, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday.

That's the funniest thing I've read all day.

Lot's of luck, Kishi.